


alone by a christmas tree

by bruadarxch



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, anne and gilbert sharing moments by the christmas tree along the years, beware of diabetes, written for kindred secret santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28287666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bruadarxch/pseuds/bruadarxch
Summary: “Little by little, Anne and Gilbert are piecing together life and family and future, things that had seemed unreachable not long before, and so their moment by the tree goes almost unnoticed.Almost.”Three times in which Anne and Gilbert find themselves blowing out the candles on the Christmas tree. A Secret Santa gift.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 20
Kudos: 80





	alone by a christmas tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Abby_nikki1124](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abby_nikki1124/gifts).



> merry christmas!
> 
> this one-shot is a secret santa gift for Abby (@meadowspirits on twitter), and was heavily inspired by headcannons she tweeted herself! I hope you love this Abby, you are the sweetest human and I loved writing this story for you 💛 (also, I hope you don’t mind my stalking!)
> 
> I hope you’re all safe and happy and spending this strange holiday season as well as possible. whatever you celebrate, I’m sending you my best wishes!

The first time Anne and Gilbert find themselves alone by a Christmas tree, none of them can really perceive the momentousness of it all. They’re just two kids on the verge of friendship, both desperately trying to find a place in a world that took so much from them. They have been alone in different ways, and it’s still too soon for them to recognise the ways in which their pain will unite them. For now, it’s enough to have a gabled room and kindred spirits and a cherry tree right outside her window, or to have sailed the world in search of meaning for his unsurmountable grief and having found a brother instead. Little by little, Anne and Gilbert are piecing together life and family and future, things that had seemed unreachable not long before, and so their moment by the tree goes almost unnoticed.

_Almost._

And well, ‘unnoticed’ might be the wrong word. It goes not so much unnoticed as very intentionally ignored. After all, they are both good at pushing aside whatever they are not ready to feel, a skill acquired in tragic circumstances but which proves useful from time to time nonetheless. So they go on about their day, they enjoy the most unconventional Christmas dinner in all of Avonlea, and they go to sleep with full bellies and the spark of belonging a good meal with family gives you.

Maybe one day they will dwell on the fluttering inside their chests when they find themselves closer than they have ever been as they blow out that last candle on the Christmas tree, or the tiny sparks coursing through their veins as they brush fingers when he hands her the present he’s secretly very proud of. Maybe they’ll realise they’re not as different as they once thought (or at least, as Anne insists they are); their remarkable talent for finding and stitching together families of their own after being bereaved is proof of this, and one day they might bond over it.

Today, however, is not that day.

*

The second time they’re alone by a Christmas tree, a whole two years after the first time, the circumstances could not be any more different.

They’re not kids anymore — or at the very least they’re marginally older and wiser, two college students on the verge of adulthood. After a tumultuous year they both finally feel as if they’re right where they’re supposed to be, and as it turns out, that would be back in the Green Gables parlour, blowing out the candles on the Christmas tree together. When they blow out the very last one, the sight of Gilbert staring at her with a self-satisfied grin makes Anne giggle.

“Don’t look at me like that!” She protests half-heartedly, the glint in her eyes betraying her weak attempt at sternness.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Anne-girl,” Gilbert replies cheekily, making her roll her eyes.

“You’re thinking about that one time we blew out the Christmas candles together, are you not?” Anne retorts, trying hard not to blush at the nickname she has only ever read in letters up until this point.

“Guilty as charged,” he admits, a soft gleam in his eyes as he takes her hand solely because now he can. “It just doesn’t seem quite real yet, you know? To be here again, with you.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” she whispers. Then, her loving stare turns downright mischievous and before he can say anything she pinches his wrist with her free hand.

“Ouch!” he yelps in shock, unable to help a chuckle when she starts giggling again.

“Did that feel real enough for you, Mr Blythe?” she jokes, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.

If there’s one thing Gilbert has learned over the course of the years, especially this one, it’s that it’s important to listen to his heart, especially where Anne is concerned. Right now his heart is being loud and clear about what it wants, and so Gilbert pulls her towards him by the hand he is still holding until she’s flush against him, his arms gently wrapping around her back. When she places her hands on his chest with a dreamy sigh, his heart leaps victoriously.

“Almost real now, Miss Shirley-Cuthbert,” he whispers huskily.

“Almost?” she retorts, shuffling impossibly closer, “what more proof could you need?”

His smile turns cheeky again as he leans towards her, his eyes unable to resist looking at her lips. The memory of those lips has kept him company in Toronto for months, and he intends to spend his whole Christmas break becoming reacquainted with them.

“Just one thing…”

In any other situation, Anne would groan at his lame attempt at humour. As it is, any protest dies on her lips the moment his hand finds her cheek and she feels his warm breath on her mouth. Her eyes flutter close, and she’s gripping his sweater for balance as she moves to stand on her tip toes when Marilla’s voice interrupts the moment.

“Dinner’s ready!” the older woman calls from the kitchen, making the young couple spring apart with matching crimson blushes on their faces.

A moment passes as they stare at each other in panic, and then Anne snorts and the tension breaks. When Bash peeks his head around the door to see what’s taking them so long he finds them still in stitches, so he just reminds them to hurry to the table and walks away shaking his head in amusement.

“We really should go,” Anne says with a bright smile as she starts to walk away towards the den.

“Wait!” Gilbert impulsively grabs her arm and pulls her back towards him, shocking them both. “I… here, I wanted to give you your present in private. I’m sorry I got… distracted”

Anne chuckles at the sight of a bashful Gilbert Blythe before her, still not quite believing this is her reality, and takes the thin envelope he just pulled from his pocket with curiosity. When she opens it to reveal Gilbert’s gift, she gasps in surprise.

“I wanted to get you a… a bigger, more important gift,” Gilbert explains nervously as she takes the bookmark he had made especially for her out of the envelope and cradles it in her hands like it’s made of crystal and gold, instead of pressed wildflowers. “I figured we have all the time in the world for such presents, so I thought maybe I could make something that would make you think of me while we’re forced to be apart. I considered other things, but if I know you like I think I do, this bookmark will be the last thing you touch before you close your book and go to sleep each night. I hope it reminds you that you’re the last thing I think about before I sleep, and the first I think about each morning when I wake up.”

A single tear escapes Anne’s eye and runs down her cheek as she gapes at him, rendered speechless for the second time this year thanks to the magnificent boy in front of her. Gilbert, however, mistakes her silence for disappointment.

“If… If you don’t like it, I can get you-“ he doesn’t get to finish his sentence, as Anne’s lips crash into his in a hurried kiss, her hand gripping the back of his neck. She pulls back after a second—bright eyed, rosy cheeked, and very much aware of their tendency to get carried away and the family waiting for them in the room next to the parlour.

“Gilbert, this is the greatest gift you could have given me,” she whispers ardently, her breath still fanning against his mouth. “I shall cherish it like a most precious heirloom, and every time I get lost inside the pages of a book, the journey back to reality will be that much sweeter with this reminder of the boy I love with my whole heart.”

Gilbert caresses her cheek, and for a second he forgets everything he has learned about human anatomy, as he is convinced his heart could burst out of happiness alone at any given moment now.

“I love you too, Anne-girl, I’m glad you like your bookmark.”

“Oh Gil,” Anne smiles, her eyes crinkling in the corners, “I feel so utterly _understood,_ like you know the inner workings of my head even better than I do. It’s the best present I could have ever asked for.”

A minute later Marilla herself will come to see what’s taking the couple so long, and the sight of a misty eyed Anne cradling a bookmark with flowers on it like she just received an engagement ring will certainly puzzle her, but she’ll hurry them towards the dinner table without asking questions. It’s Christmas after all, and she doesn’t want to embarrass her daughter and her suitor more than strictly necessary—Bash and Elijah will certainly take care of that on their own.

Later that night, Anne will look again at the precious little bookmark right before she goes to sleep, as Gilbert predicted, and say a silent prayer of thanks for being allowed to be this incandescently happy. Gilbert himself will be in his bed, gently holding the portrait of Anne she will give him after dinner, and as he caresses it he will think of their moment by the tree, and his hopes for future Christmases by her side. He will eye the pouch with his mother’s ring inside it, still resting by Anne’s seashell on top of his dresser, and once again his heart will be loud and clear about what it desperately longs for.

That will be later, though. In this very moment, right in front of the Christmas tree, Anne and Gilbert look into each other’s eyes and let themselves revel in the fact that they have finally found their place in this world, and as luck would have it, it ended up being by each other’s side.

*

On their first Christmas as husband and wife, Anne and Gilbert find themselves spending the holiday alone in their little House of Dreams, as they have taken to calling it.

Seeing as Gilbert’s medical practice couldn’t exactly stop functioning because of the holidays, the Blythes decided to spend their first Christmas alone, with the promise of a long visit to Avonlea as soon as Gilbert can find someone to cover for him for a week or two in the new year. As much as it pains them not to see their family, they try to make the best of the situation and enjoy a peaceful Christmas with each other. As far as company goes, they have absolutely no complaints.

They decide to have a picnic by the fireplace and the lit up Christmas tree just because they can, and because Anne is involved, somehow it turns into a very elegant affair right on the floor of their parlour—flower crowns, candles, festive wreaths, various pillows, raspberry cordial and a hearty meal are spread out on a blanket when Gilbert arrives home after visiting his last patient. They eat and laugh and kiss to their hearts content until they are so full they almost fall asleep right there under the tree. They exchange presents—she gives him a leather briefcase and a new pen (“I just can’t believe you’re still stealing mine after all these years!”) and he gives her a controversial book by Kate Chopin she has been hunting down for years (“I finally found it in a tiny bookshop on my last day in Toronto, I thought it was positively providential!”), and a beautiful portrait of Matthew, Marilla, Jerry, Bash, Delphine, Hazel and Elijah that makes her cry right on the spot. Then he insists on doing the cleaning so she can enjoy her new book right away, and Anne almost wants to marry him all over again in that very moment.

When he comes back to the parlour ready to relax with his wife before they retire to bed, Gilbert is surprised when instead of pouring over her novel he finds Anne holding yet another box, an nervous glint in her eyes as she watches him approach.

“I have one last gift for you,” she says, excitement coating every word. “I wanted to wait a little bit longer, but I just can’t hold it in for one more second.”

His curiosity certainly piqued, he quickly opens the box. His eyebrows burrow in confusion as he takes out the old pocket dictionary he had given Anne all those years ago, the bookmark he had made her for their first Christmas together peeking from inside the pages. His puzzlement must be evident, as Anne chuckles quietly before explaining herself.

“Gil, you have always had a knack for giving me the most perfect presents. Even before we became _us,_ you knew me well enough to see this little dictionary while you were off in an adventure and think of me. When we first started courting and we could barely see each other you made me something you knew I would use everyday, and this bookmark kept me company, reminding me that there was someone out there in the world who knew me better than I knew myself, who was waiting for me as I was waiting for him. And now we are here, my dearest dream come true, and as I promised you back then I want these gifts to become family heirlooms, especially now that we’re embarking on the most exciting new adventure together. They are as precious and priceless to me as marble halls and diamond sunbursts would be, more so even, because they came from you.”

“Anne…” Gilbert clears his throat, his wife’s words tugging at his heartstrings as they often do, “it makes me incredibly happy to know you treasured this silly little gifts for so long, but I’m afraid I don’t understand why you’re giving them to me now.”

“I suggest you open the dictionary then, although I could spell it out for you for old times’ sake if you so wished.”

Gilbert does as he’s told, and his heart stops beating for a second as he tries to process what’s in front of him. He looks at Anne, who’s grinning wildly now, and then back at the tiny book in his hands. He blinks once, then twice, and he even considers pinching his wrist, but he doesn’t think himself quite capable of imagining this. He certainly is sitting on the floor of his parlour, right by the Christmas tree. His wonderful, beautiful wife is beside him, patiently waiting for his response. There is a pocket dictionary in his hands, open by a page marked by the bookmark he had spent hours making when he was a boy desperately in love with his faraway sweetheart. And there is one single entry carefully underlined in that page.

 **Father (n.)** : a male parent; a man who has begotten a child.

“Anne, is this- are we-,“ he stops, trying to clear his head before attempting to speak. He looks at his wife with unbridled hope in his eyes, and the tears in hers answer him before he even asks, “Anne-girl, are you pregnant?”

Anne is so overcome with emotion she’s incapable of talking, so she merely nods, and then everything is a blur of joy and love as the couple celebrate the happy news.

That night, as they finally blow out the candles on their tree together like they have been doing for almost a decade now, somehow they both think of the very first time they did this. They would love to say they are not those lonely kids desperate for a family anymore, but somehow they are. Those versions of Anne and Gilbert are still alive inside them, placated over the years thanks to the kindred spirits around them and the constant working towards their future together. Today they are very present in their minds, though. Every hope and fear projected onto them, as terrified yet excited for what the future will bring now as they were back then.

However, as they blow out the last candle in unison and their eyes meet amidst the smoke, they can’t stop themselves from grinning. This time they are not bereaved children adrift in an uncertain world—they are Anne and Gilbert, two lifemates on the verge of their most exciting adventure yet. A perfect team, ready to brave any storm that comes their way, so long as they can do it hand in hand.

Christmas has never felt quite so merry.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you Abby for tweeting about wanting parallels for the christmas tree scene, and for having the brilliant idea of Gilbert making a bookmark for Anne with wildflowers so she’d think of him, I hope this comes close to what you pictured :)
> 
> also thanks as always to megs_368 for all your awesome ideas, unrelenting support and being excited to beta anything I write no matter what 💛 I love you friend!!
> 
> I’m excited to see what y’all think about this fluffy fluffy story (apologies for any toothache you may be suffering), let me know what you think in the comments :) I’m on twitter (@bruadarxch) if you wanna chat!


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